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– [feature] Translation related code (finished some strings and redone reports code to support translations).
– [feature] Reports are saved now (those were not saved in the previous version since those were unfinished and not compatible with translations).

– [translation] FR translation done (note that translation might be not fully complete, especially when a new version is introduced there might be a few texts missing). Manual not translated yet.
– [translation] RU manual translated.

– [interface] Language selector on the main menu (flags on the left).
– [interface] New end turn button (image instead of text).

First update in 2018. That one focuses on graphical improvements. Courtiers, departments and events graphics improved. Also, statistics of governors (on Empire/Summary tab) which should give you a clear picture how many governors of what competence you have.

– [interface] Departments are color coded now. All courtiers portraits got collars colored by department they are assigned, department stats have bars to indicate the department and departments names on the court screen are color coded well. Overall, it’s much easier now to spot who belongs to what department.
– [interface] Added summary of governors/officers to the Empire/Summary tab. Basically, you have a lot of stats about competence/loyalty/corruption of various officials. With percentage bars 🙂
– [interface] Moved rebels to a separate sub summary to avoid clutter on the summary screen (especially since most of the info about rebels is on the top menu tooltip anyway).
– [interface] Added image for admiral report. Also admiral reports now have a Find button to track the target planet.
– [interface] Added image for industry (shipyard production) report.

It has been more than a year since the game has been released in December 2016. The game was received well and still sells quite good I would say. So, I have decided to maintain the development pace. In year 2018 there will be monthly updates similar to 2017 (of course in an unlikely scenario of serious bugs a much faster emergency update will be released, as usual).

Most likely those updates will be interface upgrades and graphics upgrades with occasional balance adjustments if needed. As usual I’m reading the Steam forum regularly and I’m open to various suggestions. So, if you have any, post.

Oh yes, one more thing, the expansion I promised a long time ago… 🙂 Well, I will start working on it around Q4 2018. So, it should be ready at the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019.

I was thinking about the promised expansion pack for Stellar Monarch and decided to write first my views on expansion packs/DLCs in general. It is intended for Stellar Monarch’s expansion but it should apply to all my games I suppose, maybe with some exceptions/differences. So here it is, my policy on expansion packs.

The premise of an expansion pack is to extend the base game, not to fix it or make it playable. The base game comes first, it must stand on its own and be complete. Once that’s achieved an expansion can be introduced.

Rules of an expansion pack:

expansion pack CAN NOT be a fix or balance related (it belongs to the base game)

expansion pack CAN NOT be about improving interface (it belongs to the base game)

it is possible for an expansion to introduce more complex mechanics for example concepts that I have decided to not include in the base game due to additional complexity (still it must be within reasonable limits, so the game with an expansions do not turn into a complex monster)

it is possible for an expansion to include new content (races, audience events, technologies, etc)

The last version this year. First of all, change language was moved from experimental to regular options (can be accessed from quick menu). At the moment we have PL and RU translation ready, FR will be in the next version, DE probably within 2 months. In addition I have rebalanced some stuff (speed and acceleration) and cars base specs were adjusted depending on car type (for example sports cars are generally faster than pickups even in case of the same weight to power ratio since those are built for speed, limousines cars have heavy bodies and so on). And traditional interface improvements aimed to make more intuitive.

– [translation] PL translation done (note that translation might be not fully complete, especially when a new version is introduced there might be a few texts missing. Manual not translated yet).
– [translation] RU translation done (note that translation might be not fully complete, especially when a new version is introduced there might be a few texts missing. Manual not translated yet).

– [balance] Easier to increase top speed for low speeds and harder for high speeds.
– [balance] Acceleration much harder to increase.

– [interface] Improved and fixed some tooltips.
– [interface] World screen show number of “virtual” sales offices due to strategy.
– [interface] World screen shows number of our cars sold in this region with a tooltip explaining how to enable distribution in this region.

– [fix] Various small fixes.

Also, I would like to send my Christmas wishes to all players, youtubers, press and fellow developers. May our Lord’s blessing be with you and your family this year, next year and always. Happy Christmas!
(to be clear, this wishes also apply to infidels, heretics and my atheist friends :))

Beta is here! So, with this update the game is more or less feature complete (there probably will be some additional features along the way). Now I’m focusing on balancing and polish. If you find any spelling mistakes, cosmetic interface things and so on, please post on the steam group. Also translation to several languages in planned.

This version introduced a lot of smaller improvements. Also the experimental feature translation to other languages seem to be working quite well, so probably it will be moved to regular options in the next version or so.

– [feature] New cars start being distributed in all regions with sales offices (instead of just in home region) by default.
– [feature] Finished experimental feature translation to Polish (more languages will be coming soon!), to enable it go to Options and enable experimental features.

– [interface] Finished all tooltips (car & component designer).
– [interface] Made it more clear that model is not sold in ANY region (red notice).
– [interface] Smaller font for regions without any sales offices on car details screen (distribution).
– [interface] Added sold cars per model in a tooltip and car icons to Quarterly report.
– [interface] Added moving cars animation to the main menu screen (animation speed of those cars depends on difficulty level selected :)).
– [interface] Adjusted main menu colors, position of elements, etc. Also added a link to Stellar Monarch and the official website.

– [fix] Fixed idle belt cosmetic bug (when you were stopping making a car in your factory and idle a belt, the level of production was displayed incorrectly, also workers were retained).
– [fix] Various small fixes.

The last Alpha version! The next one will be Beta and from now on we will focus on balance, polish, translation and the like. The biggest feature in this version is board of directors, a meeting organized once per decade where you can decide on a long term strategy of the company. Also other nice features.

– [feature] Board of Directors meeting. It’s done once per decade and it allows you to choose a strategy your company will follow. The chosen strategy will be in effect till the next Board of Directors meeting. You can call a meeting faster (Office/Phone) but it will cost you extra.
– [feature] Music changed to playlist (now the music changes during the game, chosen randomly).
– [feature] Sales offices finished.
– [feature] Experimental feature (need to be enabled via options), translation to Polish (unfinished!) It’s intended for testers rather than for generic public (not everything is translated), just to test if it works.

– [fix] Incorrect Admiral summon tooltip (also made the tooltip more descriptive).
– [fix] Audio rare crash fix (crash if no headphones plugged in/turned on if headphones are the only audio device, also added a warning if no device plugged in).

Finally, newspaper is here! It popups each time there is a big world event (wars, economic crises, etc). Added bankruptcy mechanic (which can be disable via advanced options upon game start), option to retire, secretary and many smaller improvements.

– [feature] Bankruptcy (negative money) will cause a game over if not dealt with within 8 turns (can be disable via advanced options upon game start, existing saves before v0.15 have it disabled).